Dissertation Grants Budget Guidelines

A budget is not required at the time of submission. The budget will be finalized with the grantee, their university’s research office, and RSF after the approval of the grant. The maximum allowable budget is $15,000 for a one-year grant. RSF does not allow indirect costs on Dissertation Research Grants. Representative categories of expenditure that should be described in detail in the budget narrative include:

• Applicant stipend up to $5,000
• Research assistance
• Study participant incentives
• Data acquisition, such as data access fees, purchase of data sets, funding of surveys or in-person data collection costs
• Transcription costs
• Laboratory costs
• Travel (for data collection or data access only).
  • Conference travel when the applicant is presenting a paper or poster will be considered on a case-by-case basis if the applicant certifies that such funding is not available from the home institution or other sources.
• Other research expenses will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Budget line items that are not well justified or are judged inappropriate will be cut from the budget. Tuition remission for graduate or undergraduate students is not allowed. RSF does not generally approve the purchase of personal computers.